Monday, May 14, 2012

How does peace happen? Can nonviolence spark reform?

Peace and conflict.

War and (re)construction.

Violence and pacifism.

Complex categories of opposites that frame complicated issues.

The individual conflict that takes place between two lovers - in their fight - can be fractured by multiple layers of missed and missing communication, unmet expectations and unclear intentions, fraught with emotions. How much more difficult are situations between large groups of people, caught up in decades of extended civil mistrust and outbreaks of fighting!

The situations of Palestinians and Israelis is one such situation, fraught with complexities that can not easily be discerned.

And yet, I am convinced that more peace is needed, greater communication is needed, and solidarity with peacemaking efforts needs to be discerned.

In decades past, individual persons like Ghandi or MLK, Jr. were "at the right place at the right time" (in many issues of engagement, over years - not just in a single event) to help reframe situations of bias, prejudice, exploitation and violence.

In the context of the situation of Israeli-Arab-MiddleEast-Palestinian issues, people have been hoping for some kind of Peacemaker - a single, social activist who can gain sway to mobilize social, media, political action. For years, many, many individual persons of various status and identity have been working toward more wholistic and healthy relationships in this region.

When will the world take notice of the extremity of this collaborative, intentional, non-violent action as a means for the world to notice the situations they are protesting.

If the world does not take notice of non-violent, passive, protest, how can we reasonably expect persons with such extreme protest to get the world to take notice of their claims!? Heaven forbid we ignore these actions, and create a framework within which people think bombing building or persons is a better option!